Network Centric Warfare: An Operational Perspective

摘要

Network Centric Warfare development is currently proceeding from the tactical level up, with little concern to the overarching requirements of the operational level of war. The implied assumption is that the concepts, both technical and organizational, will naturally scale to the operational and strategic levels. Absent an operational perspective, what is likely to develop is a large-scale tactical tool set and an operational staff structure that evolves to support this tactical tool set. This paper examines Network Centric Warfare from the Operational Commander's perspective by first examining the Operational Commander's requirements of a command and control system, comparing those requirements to what Network Centric Warfare as currently envisioned will provide, then recommends an operational staff organization to support the requirements of the Operational Commander in a Network Centric Warfare environment. The recommended staff structure is designed to provide the Operational Commander the flexibility to benefit from self-synchronized forces as well as to take close control of forces when required by the mission.